The Jesuits have agreed to pay $7.5m (£4.8m) to two men who say they were sexually molested for 30 years at the Californian retirement home for priests where they worked as dishwashers.

The men, identified only as "John Doe", 56, and "James Doe", 51, complained of the abuse for years but were ignored until a local shop owner, Holly Ilse, decided to pursue their allegations of sodomy, molestation and false imprisonment.

They asked for $10m.

"All I can say is that if they settled for $7.5m, it must have been very bad," Ms Isle said when the settlement - one of the biggest in the current spate of legal actions arising from abuse in the Catholic church - was reached on Wednesday after more than a year of negotiations.

"We thought the settlements were in the best interests of all parties," said the Rev Thomas Smolich, head of the province.

The two men continued to live at the Sacred Heart Jesuit Centre, a home for 60 retired priests in Los Gatos, even after one of the priests named in their case, Edward Burke, 81, was sentenced in June to two years in prison for molesting James.

Another, Brother Charles Connor, 80, served six months of home detention for molesting John.The third named priest, Brother Hal Ellis, is ill and unable to communicate.

So far five Jesuits from Sacred Heart have registered as sex offenders.

John and James now live in assisted housing provided by a charity. They will receive $13,000 a month, and later $30,000 a month, over the next 30 years.

"I don't think there is any justice," Ms Ilse told the San Jose Mercury.

"What everybody forgets is how tortured the victims are, and this never ends."